


sūryāstaḥ

by weaslayyy



Category: Baahubali (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 12:03:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13717302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weaslayyy/pseuds/weaslayyy
Summary: the sun sets on the first day of Mahendra Baahubali's revolution, and Avantika is in love.





	sūryāstaḥ

**Author's Note:**

> part of the rewrite universe so avantika fell off the waterfall and shivu climbed back up with her and they did the whole quest thing together (i tried to keep too much out of it but thats the gist of what you probably need to know to get this.) shivu is also a functional man who actually does stuff in his village lmao.

“Mahendra,” Avantika says, trying the word out, seeing how the contours of his new name fit in her mouth, around her lips. It is the first sunset after Kattapa’s revelation, and Mahendra Baahubali is now the rightful leader of the greatest Empire seen in the last 1,000 years, protected all these years by the sacrifice of Sivagami Devi while his mother languished in chains. "Emperor Mahendra Baahubali." 

It is the type of story that Avantika could never bring herself to believe in, the baby who survived all odds on his first day of life, ripped from the arms of his mother and grandmother and given by the Gods to villagers who lived at the bottom of an impenetrable waterfall. She thinks of the man who found her broken body, who dressed her wounds and nursed her back to health, who climbed the waterfall alongside her and snuck into the very heart of an Empire he had never heard of in order to rescue a woman whose plight pulled at his heart.

 _His_ Empire, Avantika realizes. _His_ Mother.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that name,” Avantika hears from someplace behind her, and only the last months of travel with her companion keeps her from reaching for her sword.

“Shivu,” she sighs, before tensing. Her village-chief-in-training is gone, replaced by Devasena’s son and heir, rightful ascendant to the throne of both Mahishmati and Kuntala. If one of his thrones has been reduced to ash a mere six months after his birth it does nothing to reduce his stature and the respect he deserves as heir-apparent. Avantika closes her eyes, turns and begins to kneel.

“Oh god no,” Shivu catches her by the arms before her knees can hit the ground. Avantika opens her eyes. She wonders that she didn’t notice the nobility in his features all those days ago -- now that she knows she can find traces of Kuntala in the set of his eyes, the slight curl to his hair.

“Avantika” he calls out, bringing Avantika out of her distraction. “Avantika what are you doing?”

She looks at him, and in all ways he resembles the man she knows best, Shivu of the village, Shivu her friend, her companion, her -- her _something_  that was to be determined when Devasena was safe and Avantika was free of her sacred duty for the first time in all her 23 years. Avantika, who has always prided herself on her courage finds the coward within her and looks away.

“You are the rightful Emperor of Mahishmati and heir-apparent to the Kuntalan throne. I did not kneel last night, but you must trust that your ambitions will be mine to achieve on your behalf, your Empire all I will aspire to reclaim.” She pauses, and the next words come without thought, an echo of the vow she swore at the age of 5 at Jayavarma’s feet, sword in hand. “I will protect you and your honor with the last of my life-breath. ”

Something deep within her expands as she says this, and Avantika wonders if this is love, to feel the truth of her words beyond honor or duty. She will fight for him, kill for him, die for him with ease because she loves him. If she is fortunate enough to live past the battle she will see him crowned, and for the rest of her days she will stand at his side and protect him from all enemies foreign and domestic. Avantika thinks of the elder Baahubali and promises that no such fate will befall his son: she will pledge her duty to Shivu, and Shivu alone.

Three days ago she had wondered at the type of life she and Shivu might make out after Devasena’s rescue, even dared to dream about the shapes of their children’s faces. If she feels the violent loss of this dream deferred, it is buried beneath too much love for the man before her. She looks back to Shivu--Raja Mahendra and where she expects the distance of a ruler or even the warmth she has come to find in his gaze she sees only horror.

“No,” he says, and takes a step back, hands up in a universal gesture of alarm and disdain. “I won’t let you do this, you can’t --”  
  
“I don’t understand,” Avantika says, her love twisting in the pit of her stomach, bleeding like a wound. “Do you not trust me? Have I seemed unfaithful in any way?”

Has she allowed her heart to interfere with her duty? How long has he seen her as negligent? Horror. Bile threatens to rise as Avantika feels the ground under her feet crumble.

“I am not some stone idol that can accept your life as a _sacrifice_ Avantika! I don’t want your blood, I don’t want your honor, and I certainly don’t want your life!”

Avantika, finally, falls to her knees. Shivu has already turned away and she watches as he stalks to a particularly large boulder and kicks. The stone cracks and Avantika wonders how she ever imagined she could be worthy of someone so clearly god-touched. “I don’t understand,” she whispers, and Shivu turns around.

Mahendra Baahubali faces her for the first time, resplendent like his father must have been, a ruler of people with the strength to lift mountains coursing through his veins. His eyes are wild, his hands are clenched, his back straight and Avantika has loved a man that she knew struggled to know himself and to accept what he knew. He does not struggle now.

It will be easier, she thinks, if this is the man he will become. Better that all traces of her Shivu disappear over the long years ahead, before her traitorous heart seeks something it cannot touch.

“Avantika,” Mahendra says, and then he stops. He closes his eyes and runs forward, and when he opens them again, sinking to her position on the ground he is Shivu once more. Shivu sighs. “Avantika I love you.”

“Oh,” she says, blindingly, impossibly happy for one moment before she remembers. “You can’t. You are a king. _My_ king.”

Shivu waves away his position like his dual thrones were nothing more than a particularly bothersome insect. “It’s been less than six hours, I’m not much of a king yet.” He frowns. “I’m not sure I ever will be, to be honest. 25 years will be a hard habit to break.”   
  
“I am sure my king will surmount any difficulties in his path with ease,” Avantika responds loyally. Shivu rolls his eyes.

“I don’t think I want to.” Avantika’s eyes widen of their own accord.

“Are you giving up your throne?” Her voice is hushed, even saying the words seem like sacrilege to her ears.

Shivu moves from his knees to sit comfortably on the ground, legs crossed as if he was any villager speaking to his equal. Avantika waits for a moment and looks around before awkwardly moving to do the same.

“No,” he says after some moments. “Not unless I find someone better to occupy the seat, and my Lady Mother has already declined to crown herself.”

“Then you will be Emperor,” Avantika says with some satisfaction. “We will kill Bhallaladeva and you will bring justice back to these parched lands.”

Shivu smiles, and Avantika has known him long enough to see that it is sad. She wishes she could brush her fingers against her lips and etch happiness into the lines of his face. “That is what everyone believes,” he says.

“It will come to pass,” of this Avantika is sure. “The people of your village are strong and safe, and I watched you make judgments with great wisdom. You have spoken of nothing more than the improvements you believed Mahishmati needed, the ways in which a better ruler could fix the infrastructure and reshape society.” It is perhaps presumption of Avantika to speak of these things, but there was no one else who saw Shivu in those private moments. “There is no one on heaven or Earth who could better rule than you.”

Shivu looks up. “My sainted father included?”

“He gave up his claim,” Avantika says. “There is no need to think of things that will never come to pass.”

“He allowed the man who raised him to remain a slave,” Shivu mutters. Avantika stays silent. “I told Kattapa a few hours ago that if he fights, it should be as a free citizen of Mahishmati. I will not tolerate slavery if I am to be King.”

A thought. “When I offer you my life, I do not mean that as a slave.” Shivu will be a wonderful King, but Avantika realizes that there are parts he does not know yet. She pledges her life as a free woman, but to someone like Shivu her vow may have sounded very similar to that of Kattapa's shackles.

“I did not think you did,” Shivu responds, and Avantika is confused once again. His eyes soften. “I love you Avantika, and if you love me as well I mean to marry you.”

“A soldier cannot become a queen!”

Shivu smiles, and Avantika only detects the tension that had hidden in his shoulders when it has left. “Does that mean you love me too?” Avantika blushes and looks away. Shivu does not understand, and so he makes this so much harder.

“My feelings are inconsequential when the matter remains -- you are a king and I am a soldier. Your people deserve a woman who can rule beside you, who can manage a household and the functions involved.” Avantika stares at the dirt they sit on. “I am no woman to even be a wife, I cannot pretend to be a Queen when so much is at stake.”

“You are you,” she hears amidst the dark of her eyelids, “I don’t expect anything more than you are willing to give.” Then, for a minute she hears nothing. “Avantika,” Shivu begins again, “you changed the course of my life. I will never love the best of anyone so much as I love the worst of you. I don’t want you to sacrifice your life for me because I want you to live alongside me, my partner in all things, the breath to my body.”

Avantika opens her eyes. There is a battle ahead, and only the Great God himself knows who will still breathe in the morning after. There is time yet for the details of reality, but for now the sun has sunk past the horizon, and all around them the stars are beginning to show.

“I would die for you,” she says again, and when Shivu opens his mouth to protest she lifts her fingers to cover his mouth. “Not simply for duty, but because I love you too much to live in a world bereft of your presence.”

There is another sigh, but then Shivu kisses the fingers that lie on top of his lips and Avantika, who has only known the violence of love melts, soft within this one moment where there is no duty but the love she feels and the love that is felt.

“Shivu,” she says into the night and smiles. “My Shivu.”

**Author's Note:**

> happy .. .valentines day!!!! i literally forgot i had to do this and wrote it all out in the last two hours so all mistakes in either grammar, plot or characterization are mine. this will probably be redone at some point for the rewrite so if you didnt like it PLEASE comment and tell me what I should be fixing!! if you did like it, PLEASE COMMENT so that my fragile self esteem can rest in peace and i can be happy. thank you!!!


End file.
